In
the 1906 earthquake, the Hale Brothers' dry goods store was severely
damaged. So in 1912 a new store was opened at 901 Market Street called
Hale Brothers Department Store, it was one of San Francisco's largest.
The Hale Brothers — Francis, Marshall and Reuben — installed an
experimental radio broadcast transmitter in the store. KPO was built at
a cost of just $2,400, and made its debut at 9 AM on April 17, 1922.

Note that the
antenna is a series of parallel wires strung between two towers. The
station was soon sold to NBC, and, in 1933, the studio was moved to the
21st floor of 111 Sutter St. There, KGO and KPO (renamed KNBC) were in
NBC's Red and Blue networks. In the early 1960's, NBC wanted to move the
KNBC call letters to its Los Angeles TV station KRCA, to commemorate
their move from the Hollywood Radio City building to new studios in
Burbank. As a result, the call letters of its San Francisco radio
station were changed once again, this time from KNBC to KNBR.

Later the building
housed a Marshall's Department Store, then was registered in 1986 on the
National Register of Historic Places and remodeled.

The
photo to the right shows the original 1922 radio studio on the sixth
floor. A piano and a phonograph were provided as a source of program
material.

The
transmitter is the large black panel in the rear, and a light bulb above
it indicated when the station was on the air. To the right of the
transmitter is a carbon microphone, a Westinghouse RC receiver, which was
used to monitor for ships in distress, and a Victrola for the DJ.

This
photo shows the fancy, new amplifier installed in 1925. If this looks
primitive to you, remember that this was after the
beginning of the classic era of Lionel Standard Gauge.

Actually the Lionel
"Department Store Special" that prompted me to post these web
pages was likely sold in 1925 or 1926. It was at a time when Lionel no
longer used hook couplers. In the photos of the train set, you can see
that the factory swapped out hook couplers from the #19 Combine and
replaced them with combination/latch couplers.

At one time, the
train set and this amplifier, and likely this serious guy, were in the
same building on Market Street in San Francisco!

Here
is the Hale Brothers building today. In 1986, it was remodeled into an
office building with shopping stores at the ground level.

Anshen + Allen, a
national architectural firm, was one of the first occupants of the
building after the remodel and occupy the upper floor, which is an
addition to the original building. Not really noticeable in this view
except for the fringe of foliage at the top of the uppermost cornice.